Presenting the No-Sew Jambox Tote Bag

Are you ready to turn your summer dance parties up to 11? Last May (almost exactly a year ago, in fact), we hacked our Big Jambox by adding a shoulder strap and charger pocket. Now, it’s time to turn our little Jambox into the ultimate summer tote bag: a tote bag with speakers! We used a mini tote, hot glue, bias tape, and a few snap buttons to make this rockin’ bag. Read on to find out how.

Materials:
– mini fabric tote bag

– bias tape (orange)

– snap fasteners

– Jambox (or any Bluetooth speaker)

– fabric, 6 inches by 6 inches

Tools:
– hot glue

– fabric scissors

– xacto knife

– needle nose pliers

– matte cutting board

First, you need a bag and a speaker. We used a Jambox because it’s small, rectangular, and fits easily into the bottom of a small tote bag. You could do the same thing with a variety of wireless speakers, but the process will be slightly different. If you’re not familiar with the Jambox, it’s a tiny speaker that connects to your phone via Bluetooth and packs a serious volume punch.

The materials for this are pretty straightforward. To keep it no-sew, we used bias tape and hot glue.

Place your speaker at the bottom of your tote. Turn the tote on it’s side and measure. Mark with a pencil so you know exactly where to cut out the window for your speaker. Do the same on both sides.

Slide a cutting board into your bag. Use your ruler and an xacto knife to cut along the lines you marked.

Now it’s time to add the bias tape. Cut tape to size and glue along the edges of the windows you’ve just cut.

Cut more tape to add ties to the inside of the bag. This is how the Jambox will be held in place.

See? That’s how it will work.

Tie both ties into a pretty bow and your Jambox is ready to rock!

If you want to make your tote functional when it’s not pumping the tunes, you’ve gotta add a couple snap button panels. That’s where the extra fabric comes in! Add buttons to each corner of the windows on your tote. Then make two fabric panels. To create a smooth seam, simply hot glue instead of sewing the fabric. Add snap buttons to the fabric, and snap onto the windows!

The top photo is how your tote will look without a Jambox or buttons, and the bottom is how it will look from the inside out with fabric panels snapped in.

We love the contrast of the stripes with the cassette pattern.

But let’s get back to rocking out – time to snap out the panels.

Tie the Jambox back in.

And party on!

How do you take your dance party on the road? What are your go-to songs for summer rocking? Tell us in the comments below.